By Will Barber Taylor

Drew Lord Haig (Aiden Gillen), a washed-up ’80s one-hit-wonder turned IT entrepreneur, is stunned when a Belfast battalion invites him to perform at their centenary celebration. Flattered and intrigued, Drew accepts, hoping to relive his glory days and recapture his youth. When he discovers the truth, he realizes that nostalgia can be as destructive as it can be a haven…

If, as Roxy Music once sang, Love is the drug then nostalgia is a drug that is as lethal. We live in an age of nostalgia one in which people are desperate to, for good or ill, relive the triumphs and tragedies of the past. In Nostalgie, director Kathryn Ferguson and writer Stacey Gregg have created a truly prophetic tale of the curse and pain of that nostalgia. Set against the backdrop of the Troubles, Nostalgie emphasises how a love of the past and of past glories can mean something far darker and more sinister to some people than others.

This nostalgia is initially distilled through the eyes of Drew Lord Haig, played with brilliant dramatic and comedic precision by Aiden Gillen. Gillen expertly channels the excited nerves Haig feels at the apparent rediscovery of his musical career and the flip Haig feels when he realizes why exactly he has been invited to performance at the celebration, the significance his song has to the amassed audience of the pub. The horror in Haig’s eyes is palpable, and Gillen makes us truly feel for the situation he finds himself in, that his past has now forever been corrupted by the actions of others.

Ferguson’s direction is exceptional – she perfectly frames every shot, especially the sequences when Haig is performing on the pub’s stage and when he realizes the significance of his b side song for his audience. The shadows cast across Gillen’s face as he learns the truth is especially effective and allow for the full horror of the situation to be subtly visually conveyed.

Nostalgie is an incredible film – it is funny, poignant, electrifying in its intensity and horrifying in how it shows that nostalgia can be as much as corrupting force as it can be a comfort blanket. It is a film that translates the pain of the Troubles perfectly and eloquently reminds us of the very long shadow that they cast across all of Northern Ireland.